Posts Tagged ‘clashes’

The IDF has denied an Arab report that Israeli military forces killed a 13-year-old teen from the Palestinian Authority during clashes with Arab attackers in the northern Jerusalem suburb of A-Ram on Tuesday.

According to a military source, there were no IDF troops in the area where Palestinian Authority officials claim the teen was killed.

Israel Police denied live fire was used during clashes with rioters. IDF officers said stun and gas grenades were used, Ynet reported.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health reported the death following a claim by Ramallah Hospital director Ahmad Bitawi, who said the teen was killed by a bullet to the chest.

The source of the bullet was not made clear, however. Guns are traditionally fired by Muslims to celebrate weddings and other happy occasions, usually at night.

In addition, blood feuds, dishonor issues and other disputes are usually settled with guns in that culture as well.

Nor is it unusual for Arab officials to try and blame an Arab death on Israeli forces, regardless of location.

A Palestinian Authority Arab was killed in an attack on Israeli soldiers during clashes Tuesday morning outside Dehaishe, south of Bethlehem.

Malik Akram Shaheen, 20, was participating in a day of mob violence that followed an Arab terror attack Monday on a Jewish man in Hebron.

The Israeli victim, an Israeli in his 40s, was near the Cave of the Patriarchs when he was stabbed. He was seriously wounded; his Arab attacker — 21-year-old Ihab Fathi Miswadi — was shot and killed by security personnel.

Shaheen was shot during the riot, according to a report by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for the Palestinian Authority.

The news agency reported that Shaheen sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was bleeding heavily when he was evacuated to a hospital in Beit Jala. He succumbed to his injuries, Ma’an reported.

A local, unnamed group announced a Day of Mourning for Shaheen on Wednesday, according to the Arab news agency — but as it has in similar coverage, Ma’an did not attribute its source, nor did it name the group that was behind the so-called ‘Day of Mourning,’ an event that often becomes a ‘day of rage’ with more violence.

Marches are also reportedly planned for Daheishe and Bethlehem as part of the day’s events, according to the report, with no information about who is organizing them. Often it is terrorist groups.

Hundreds of police officers and IDF soldiers gathered Wednesday morning to protect workers who demolished the home of a terrorist in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.

The terrorist, Ibrahim Al-Akri, carried out a ram-and-stab attack in his mini-van at a train platform, killing two officers and then getting out of his vehicle to attack bystanders. He was neutralized by forces at the scene who shot and killed him.

Israel Police said in a statement, “We will operate with zero tolerance against anyone who attempts to disrupt society, and against anyone who attempts to harm security forces.”

Earlier in the week, two of the three Jewish minors who brutally murdered an Arab teen from Shuafat were convicted in the Jerusalem District Court. But the swift response of the Israeli justice system did little to stem the wave of Arab terror, much of which emanates from the neighborhood. That same day, Arab attackers in Shuafat hurled rocks at the Jerusalem Light Rail — which serves commuters in the neighborhood with a regular stop there — traumatizing passengers and damaging another car on the train, which again had to be taken out of service.

A number of the residents in the restive neighborhood have been deeply involved in terrorist activities and others, while not actively involved, have supported their actions. In a prelude to Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014 and during the war itself, Arab terrorists in Shuafat destroyed all the Light Rail stops in the neighborhood and also one in a nearby area.

Nearly all of the Hamas leadership in Judea and Samaria is now in the hands of the IDF. In the process, a Palestinian Authority unity government Arab died at dawn in clashes at Jelazoun, north of Ramallah, but it is not clear whose bullet ended his life.

The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported the 20-year-old man was taken to hospital with “a bullet in his chest” but failed to mention whether the bullet was from a terrorist’s gun or that of the IDF. Two other rioters were also wounded, according to the report. The man had been one of the rioters trying to prevent IDF soldiers from their house to house search for three teenage yeshiva boys kidnapped by the terrorist group last Thursday night. The soldiers were also arresting Hamas members during the operation, which took place overnight throughout Judea and Samaria.

Nearly all of the Hamas leadership in Judea and Samaria is now in Israel’s custody, with some 150 arrests having been made over the past 48 hours. The IDF allegedly used explosives to blow open the door at one house in Hevron; two arrests were made in that incident.

Arabs also attacked Jews as they were walking back from a mass prayer rally at the Western Wall Sunday evening, singing songs of faith as they passed through the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem. The mob of Arabs hurled rocks and chairs at the Jews, screaming and cursing at them, attempting to block them from moving forward until police arrived to break up the confrontation. A video of the attack can be seen on the Arutz Sheva website.

Arab attacks on Jews in and around the Old City and on routes to and from the Western Wall are becoming increasingly more common: an American tourist who asked not to be identified told The Jewish Press that her visit to the sacred site on Friday night was marred by a what she called a similar “unpleasant incident.”

The woman, accompanied by an Israeli friend, was on her way to the Western Wall when a group of Arab teenage boys “bumped into us, deliberately getting between us, smoking cigarettes and looking very insolent. They went out of their way to get into our way,” she said, “and then looking to see what we would do about it, if anything. I am a New Yorker so I just kept walking. But it was not pleasant and it’s never happened before. I thought it was very odd.”

On Sunday night, PUG Arabs also opened fire in a drive-by shooting at an IDF checkpoint protecting the entrance to Jerusalem on the Gush Etzion tunnel road. No one was injured in the shooting, which took place on Highway 60 near the Arab village of Walleja. Five bullet casings were later found near the site of the incident.

Two of the kidnapped yeshiva boys — Gilad Sha’ar and U.S.-born Naftali Frenkel are age 16, and Eyal Yifrach is 19 years old. All three learn at the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva in the Judean community of Kfar Etzion in Gush Etzion. They were traveling to their homes for the Sabbath when they were kidnapped. One managed to call police at 10:25 p.m. to let them know they had been grabbed by terrorists before their cell phones were cut off, police said Sunday night.

By early Sunday, some 80 Hamas members and more than a dozen Islamic Jihad terror suspects had been rounded up for questioning in the search for the missing teens. Overnight Sunday night, another 50 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members were taken into custody.

Separatist fighters in the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk confirmed Thursday they are holding four missing observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as hostages.

The pro-Russian rebels also shot down a Ukrainian government military helicopter Thursday during heavy clashes around the city of Sloviansk – located in the northern part of the Donetsk province — killing 14 people. Among the dead was General Volodymyr Kulchitsky, the BBC reported. The rebels allegedly used a Russian-made anti-aircraft system.

There has been heavy fighting over the past several weeks in the area, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Ukraine’s border with Russia.

According to reports by the Associated Press, residents in Sloviansk – a hotbed of separatist forces — have been regularly shelled with mortar fire by government forces. Civilian casualties have been high, and some residents are fleeing, according to the reports.

The Jewish Agency for Israel evacuated a couple with two twin baby girls from the city of Donetsk (capital of the province) and another couple from the city of Mariupol, south of Donetsk city, out of Ukraine in a rescue operation earlier this week. The six were already set for aliyah, but the decision to rescue them was made due to the fierce battle that started over the Donetsk airport between Ukraine’s army and pro-Russian militants. They traveled overland to the Kiev airport and then flew from there on to Israel.

Police shot and killed two three protesters in violent clashes on Wednesday between stick-wielding demonstrators and security forces in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. A third protester died after a fall.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov blamed the deaths on opposition leaders and claimed that the police did fire live bullets.

The violence escalated after three days of protests over the two-month-old political crisis, which worsened when President Viktor Yanukovych changed course from an expected signing of a long-anticipated cooperation deal with the European Union.

The clashed were sparked by his success in passing legislation against protesters.